Christopher Nolan: “The Quote Is Inaccurate”

"I would never say someone's else's film isn't "a real film". The quote is inaccurate."

That's Christopher Nolan's reaction to the widely spread (including here at Badass Digest) quote from him saying that 'real movies' don't have post-credits stingers. Here's my original piece on it.

I stand by the general sentiment of that piece, if not the specifics. It's a bummer that The Guardian is presenting quotes in such a misleading way (the writer is quoting Zack Snyder, but not in context - ie, the quote isn't part of a larger Snyder quote. It's also part of a piece that is full of direct quotes from Nolan). It is interesting that this quote - which Snyder clearly gave as a way of praising Nolan - ended up raising everyone's hackles because of how closely it tracks to popular, cartoony image of Nolan.

I'm glad he didn't actually say this simply because it was such a shitty sentiment. Not because it's attacking Marvel, but because it shows such a limited view of the cinema. If we start dividing movies into real films and everything else we've already created a scenario where strange, unique, boundary-pushing, low-class and oustider films are simply not 'real films.' We've created an artificial divide between high art and low art in cinema, which for so much of its history was seen as a low art in general. I don't think there's a divide - sure, some films are better than other films, but no one kind of film is more 'real' than any other kind. It's the filmmaking, not the genre, that defines a film.

We've gotten a lot of discussion out of this quote, and now we can maybe start talking about why Zack Snyder sees this quote as praise, and what it says about Man of Steel and its problems.

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While some may say he is the greatest critical mind of his time, Devin Faraci humbly insists he is only the voice of a generation. He has been writing about movies online since there was a 21st century.